The present invention pertains generally to a timepiece. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a timepiece capable of determining when time indication is not necessary so that movement of indicator hands can be stopped to conserve energy.
Conventionally, timepieces have indicator hands including a second hand, a minute hand and hour hand to display current time. A wheel series reduces the speed of rotation of a drive motor so that the indicator hands can be driven at appropriate rotational speeds.
In conventional timepieces, the indicator hands are continuously driven. Thus, the motor which drives the indicator hands needlessly consumes electricity during times when display of the current time is not necessary, such as when it is dark, when there are no people present, etc. Furthermore, the continuous rotation of the indicator hands generates a constant noise, making sleep in the presence of the conventional timepiece difficult.
It is also known to illuminate the dial of the conventional timepiece. This illumination is effective to allow viewing of the current time in a dark room. However, this illumination of the dial also needlessly consumes electricity when the ambient light is above a certain level, when there are no people present, etc.
Therefore, there is a great need for an energy saving timepiece that does not needlessly consume electricity to drive time indicator hands, and/or to illuminate a dial, during times when time display and dial illumination is not necessary.